3

I heard Zach scream "Dave!" before waking up suddenly.

I let out a gasp and clutched my stomach, thinking how strange it was that I felt that bullet, and how it was so painful. Stupid dream.

I looked around, not understanding how I made it from my window to my bed. I must have walked over to the bed and drifted off, before finishing that episode. Where was my laptop?

The room was dark with hardly anything visible, and when I got tired of looking for my useless alarm clock that managed to walk off my nightstand in the middle of the night, I decided that it must have been late still. I wasn't looking forward to the early morning I was going to have, so I huddled myself into the surprisingly cozy sheets. (When did I replace my old ones with these?)

As I was falling asleep, I could hear the faint rattling of an unreasonably long freight train passing through.

When my eyes opened, the first thing I saw was a woman in a red shirt and khakis, fumbling with her keys as she successfully managed to get into the car and drive off, with out having a nervous breakdown on the spot.

"Dave," Zach said in a tone that seemed familiar to me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, muttering, "Oh no. Not this again," to myself. I slowly turned away from the window of the grocery store and faced Dave, who was pointing his gun at me.

"We've killed all those damn zombies, so we have time. I want to know how she knows about us."

"Anything I say," I started, "will just make you want to kill me."

"Damn right!" Dave snapped raising his gun. "So you better get your story straight, lady."

I took a deep breath contemplating my next words. I didn't want to be repeating the same mistake that got me killed in my last dream.

"Look," I said raising my hands up defensively. "If I'm going to tell you anything, I'm gong to tell you without a gun pointed at my face."

Dave hesitated before lowering his weapon.

"Seems fair." He said.

"This is a TV show." I tried causing Dave to ready his weapon again.

"I said no more-"

"I know!" I snapped. "But that's the truth."

Dave returned the gun to his side.

"I'm sorry I don't believe you."

"I know." I repeated. "But you will have to trust me, because you saw what just happened."

"What?" Dave asked not knowing what I meant.

"I just saved you guys! I told you how not to get Zach bitten, and you got to keep all your weapons, without a single scratch on your…baby."

"And what would've happened in this other… version?"

"If you guys went out, you wouldn't have been able to fight off the zombies. Not all of them anyway."

The brothers glanced at each other as I continued on.

"You would've been forced to go to the car, and leave all the other weapons behind. When you'd run out of ammunition, you'd use knives, but not the bigger ones I gave you. And…" I paused before continuing on. "And then one would bite Zach, and Dave you totally kicked that zombies ass, but without Zach's help you wouldn't have been able to take the rest. So you used your car to take them down."

"I would never-"

"Yes you would." I told him bluntly. "For him you would." I gestured to Zach who shifted uneasily.

"Okay, and?" Dave asked with an unimpressed shrug.

"Well, those people that you just freed wouldn't have been freed. You would've driven off without coming back for them."

"Okay, I wouldn't leave them-"

"Yes you would." Zach interrupted this time. "For me you would. If it meant I might die or turn, you would."

"So what? All those people just die?"

"No." I said. "They're really smart," I explained giving them credit. "One zombie gets to them, but they beat him in the head, because that's what you told them to do."

"Alright, does Zach get better?" Dave asked.

I nodded in response.

"What about my baby?"

I nod yes again.

"Okay, so we lose a few weapons. Other than that, everything seems to be doing fine."

"Well yea, but…" At the risk of sounding strange, I didn't want to continue any further.

"But what?" Dave wanted to know. "Listen," he said. "If you're going to convince me that my life's work is a television show and you are the very answer to our prayers, you're going to have to do a little better than that."

"It's just yea, your car and your brother get back to normal, but-" I just couldn't continue. It would make me seem worse than a fan girl.

"But what?"

"Maybe I've looked into this way too much, but those people weren't the same."

"What does that even mean?"

"See, I knew you would think it was stupid."

"Stupid? I don't even know what you're talking about! So far it just sounds to me that everyone goes home happy."

"After you leave and those people get out, they see your car is gone, and where you could have left as heroes, you came off as cowards. Their faith in you, and other people doing some good may not have been entirely gone, but it changed. Now that you came back for them, they know that have someone to count on."

"That's beautiful, really, but I don't do this to look like a hero."

"It's not about you!" I argued. "It's about them, and if you'd left they would've held it against you, and resented you for leaving them behind. That kind of thing would have made them feel worthless because they weren't important enough to come back for." I took in a breath. "So no." I fumed. "Everyone did not go home happy."

"Oh and in this version people did? You think the fact that they saw their coworkers—their friends—turn into people-eating monsters made them happy?" Dave shouted.

"No, but it's better than them having to kill one of their friends, so stop pretending that if I weren't here, everything would be going just dandy!"

"Well stop giving yourself more credit than you deserve!"

My hand almost automatically proceeded to slap Dave Savage across the face.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry are you okay?"

"No!" Dave cried holding his cheek. I accidentally let out a giggle. Uh-oh. Shouldn't have done that.

"You think this is funny Cru Ella?"

"No." I said changing my face to look sympathetic.

"I do," Zach said bursting out in laughter, and I couldn't help but join, as Dave stormed out of the store.

"Yea, well when you two are done laughing let me know, because I still really can't stand this chick, and l ain't convinced." He said walking out into the parking lot with us following.

"Hey," I said, offended.

"Seriously? That's it? That's how this is a TV show?"

"Well I don't know how else to convince you." I told him as we all got into the car.

Dave rolled down the windows and rested his head on the steering wheel.

"Are you okay?" Zach asked, concerned.

"Tell me this," Dave ignored Zach, and turned back to me. "How did you get here?"

"I'm dreaming!" I said, tired of sounding like a broken record.

"You're not dreaming." Dave said turning back to start the car.

"Obviously you would think that! I'm the one who is dreaming." I said.

"If I pinch you, will you wake up?" Dave wanted to know.

I shrugged.

"Probably." I let out my arm. "Go for it."

"No," Dave said catching me off guard. "If this is a dream, and me and my brother aren't real, I don't want to risk it. You pinch yourself."

"Okay," I said rolling my eyes. "Whatever."

When I pinched my self, I didn't wake up.

"Hah." Dave said with a smug look on his face. "I knew it."

"I've woken up from this dream before." I said, folding my arms.

"I don't believe you." Dave replied.

"No, of course you don't." I muttered.

"Look, if this is a dream, how is it that you can feel everything?" Dave wondered.

"What?"

"That gun that you helped yourself to… it was heavy right?"

"Yea, I guess."

"Okay, so if this is all a dream how come you couldn't just pick up the thing like it weighed the same as a feather?" Dave asked me. "And if this is all just a dream how come it's so vivid? Usually when people dream they don't know it, and if they do it's never like this. Admit it. This feels like real life."

I had to. It was probably the most vivid dream I'd ever had. In fact, when I first woke up, I thought it was so strange how I ended up in a grocery store before realizing I was confused only because everything just looked and felt so realistic. That didn't mean I got sucked into a TV show. I wasn't even watching the episode that I arguably got "sucked into" when it might have happened… if it could.

"And don't get me started on this TV show business again." Dave interrupted my train of thought. "Where are the cameras? How come I don't feel like I'm trying to remember my lines? How come I'm not getting paid like an actor, huh?"

"I'm sure I can convince you that this is in fact a very popular TV show." I said.

"You know, you keep saying that," Dave said, "but you still haven't-"

"Personally, I think we should've picked up some food from the grocery store, don't you Dave?" I interrupted starting to make my point.

"That's actually not a bad idea." Dave muttered. "Why didn't we do that?" He asked Zach who in turn only shrugged.

"It's probably because you're too worried that one of us would ruin your precious upholstery." I pointed out. Then I turned to Zach. "Doesn't it just bug you how much your brother baby's you?" I asked him. He gave me a surprised look. "I mean, honestly, we understand that you're trying to look after your younger brother Dave, but we find your behavior beyond annoying, despite your amazing good looks, and ability to get women into bed with a single sentence."

"I'm not sure if I've just been insulted or not." Dave said with a frown.

"Oh trust me," I told him with a smug look. "We know all about your pick up game in bars."

"Listen-" Zach tried, but I quickly cut him off.

"You know, you left that picture of Jessica behind at the motel." I said to him. He immediately pulled out his wallet and frantically searched for the photo.

"Dave," His voice was shaking.

"What is it Zach?" Dave gripped his brother's shoulder in order to calm him.

"It's not here," Zach said beginning to panic.

"Stop freaking out." I told him.

"Tell me where it is," Zach demanded. "Now!"

"Last night," I started, "was going to be your two year anniversary, and you couldn't sleep."

Zach's angry demeanor was now morphing into a puzzled one.

"So you took out her photo," I continued. "You stared at her all night, and even told her you missed her."

"Where is the picture?" Zach asked again.

"Under the pillow." I replied. "Call the motel. You guys haven't checked out yet. They can tell you it's there."

Zach pulled out his phone, and gave the clerk the fake name they used, wondering if they had found the picture. After finishing the phone call, Zach turned to Dave, and half smiled.

"It's there." He said. I grinned.

"I told you it would be." I said. "And now, I've saved you from a lot of emotional turmoil, as well as spending money on gas."

"What's your name?" Dave wanted to know.

"Daisy," I said thinking on the spot as quickly as possible for a fake name.

I picked it up from the sour cream rack that was displayed behind Zach, back in the store. I remembered thinking about how while nothing in my dream and reality matched, my subconscious got the sour cream brand and logo down. So I chose that name to give them, but quickly associated it to that bitch that lived at the other end of our hall whose favorite flower was the daisy and who felt inclined to turn everything she ever owned, daisy-themed. Seriously, it was like a daisy threw up on her life.

I immediately made a face.

"Ew, no. My name's not Daisy."

Zach and Dave raised their eyebrows and looked at each other.

"Okay, Cru Ella what is your name then?"

"You could call me that!" I suggested in excitement.

"What? Cru Ella?"

I nodded.

"You want us to refer to you by the name of a lady that eats puppies?" Dave asked.

"She didn't eat puppies! She just used their skin to make clothes."

"Oh, right. How much less sadistic!"

"You could call me Ella." I told them.

The truth was I felt strangely comfortable with Ella, like I was almost magically drawn to it. Maybe I just liked the way Dave said it.

"What's your real name Cru?" Dave asked with a bit of a serious tone.

"If you want us to trust you, you're going to have to be honest with us, and starting with your name." Zach argued.

"Okay, fine." I said rolling my eyes. "I just thought it would be exciting to have a fake name. Anyway, my real name is…" I stopped suddenly becoming very afraid.

"Well?" Dave asked growing impatient.

"My name…" What was going on?

"Lady! What's your name?"

"I-" My heart started to pound. "I don't know."